The overall goals ofthe Development Fund Program are to 1) provide seed funding for novel, creative and early, high risk research projects, 2) promote interdisciplinary research projects and 3) recruit new investigators into the field of cancer molecular imaging. This funding mechanism has had a significant impact on the discovery of important aspects of tumor biology through a) the use of in vivo imaging, b) the development of novel technologies and agents, and c) the advancement of research tools from bench to bedside and back. In the past, this type of funding mechanism has led to significant discoveries within our Center, including the creation of enzyme-activatable imaging probes and magnetic cell trackers or fusion proteins to image gene expression. Two specific Developmental Fund projects were identified for the first year of funding. The first project (